It’s impossible to reconcile this…
“Anytime this nation puts one of our youngsters into harm’s way, we’d better — and we will — make sure they get the best training, the best equipment, the best possible support.” — President Bush, July 2003
…with this.
The Army has deployed a new troop transport vehicle in Iraq with many defects, putting troops there at unexpected risk from rocket-propelled grenades and raising questions about the vehicle’s development and $11 billion cost, according to a detailed critique in a classified Army study obtained by The Washington Post.
The vehicle is known as the Stryker, and 311 of the lightly armored, wheeled vehicles have been ferrying U.S. soldiers around northern Iraq since October 2003. The Army has been ebullient about the vehicle’s success there, with Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, telling the House Armed Services Committee last month that “we’re absolutely enthusiastic about what the Stryker has done.”
But the Army’s Dec. 21 report, drawn from confidential interviews with operators of the vehicle in Iraq in the last quarter of 2004, lists a catalogue of complaints about the vehicle, including design flaws, inoperable gear and maintenance problems that are “getting worse not better.”
This revelation, on top of similar revelations that the Pentagon has been criminally slow in getting the troops the armor and protective gear they need, not to mention the soldiers scrounging for “Hillbilly armor,” adds further proof that we’re continuing to short change our troops in Iraq.
The report detailing the problems with the Stryker, however, paints a truly ridiculous picture. As Slate’s Eric Umansky put it, the vehicle has “more glitches than a Yugo.”
* Its armoring shield only works against half the grenades used to assault it.
* The shield is so heavy, it leads to 11 tire-and-wheel assemblies daily, and makes the Stryker difficult to drive during the rainy season.
* Commanders’ displays aboard the vehicles are poorly designed and do not work.
* The vehicle’s computers are too slow and overheat in desert temperatures or freeze up at critical moments, such as “when large units are moving at high speeds simultaneously” and overwhelm its sensors.
* The Stryker’s laser designator, zoom, sensors, stabilizer and rotating speed all need redesign.
* The vehicle’s seat belts cannot be readily latched when troops are in their armored gear, a circumstance that contributed to the deaths of three soldiers in rollover accidents.
* It has a console that shows images in black and white, even though it’s designed for troops to watch for certain colors.
* The main weapon system, a $157,000 grenade launcher, fails to hit targets when the vehicle is moving.
* Some crews removed part of the launchers because they can swivel dangerously toward the squad leader’s position.
If Rumsfeld responds to this by saying, “You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have,” I propose putting him in a Stryker in Iraq.